(spoiler: they didn’t)
If you live anywhere near Elgin–St. Thomas–London South, you’ve already seen through the press conferences and the slogans. Auto workers were promised support, stability, and a government that “had their backs.”
Instead, they got the exact opposite — and now the Liberals, Carney, and Mélanie Joly are trying to pin the fallout on Donald Trump like he flew into Ontario and personally unplugged the machines.
No one’s buying it.
The reality the Liberals don’t want to talk about
When MP Andrew Lawton raised the issue in Parliament, his line wasn’t partisan theatre — it was just a description of the damage:
“No clarity, no plan, no relief for auto workers in Elgin, St. Thomas and London.”
And the government’s response?
Confusion, denial, and a game of “blame the Americans” that fell apart the second anyone checked the timeline.
Here’s what actually happened:
- Stellantis shifted a major vehicle line from Brampton to Illinois after receiving massive public subsidies in Canada. That wasn’t caused by Trump — that was caused by a federal government that cut a deal with no protections, no conditions, and no leverage.
- Ottawa then reduced import-remission allowances for automakers, tightening margins at the exact moment companies were already looking for reasons to offshore production.
- The 2025 Liberal budget delivered zero targeted support for affected workers. Not even a band-aid. Just the usual “retraining” boilerplate that never replaces an actual job.
This is not Donald Trump’s doing.
This is Carney’s policies and Joly’s diplomacy leaving holes wide enough to drive a transport truck through.
Blaming Trump is political theatre
The government keeps hinting that Trump’s tariff posture “created uncertainty.”
Maybe it did — but uncertainty isn’t what shuts down a line.
Actual decisions do.
Corporate decisions.
And government failures to prevent them.
A strong federal government anticipates these shifts and negotiates from a position of strength.
This government acted surprised every single time — because it was.
Canadians know who dropped the ball
Polls show Canadians overwhelmingly believe losing auto jobs would harm the economy — and they want the sector defended, not negotiated away and then retroactively blamed on Washington.
Even people who don’t follow politics can see the pattern:
- Bad deal signed
- Corporate shift announced
- Workers laid off
- Liberals blame external forces
- No plan to fix anything
You can set your watch to it.
The moment that said the quiet part out loud
And then came the Prime Minister’s answer when asked about protecting Canadian jobs:
“Who cares?”
That’s not policy.
That’s fatigue disguised as leadership.
And Mélanie Joly’s follow-up — the stalled syllables, the scrambled non-answers — was just the visual confirmation of how unprepared this government is when asked to defend its own record.
So how did the Liberals help auto workers?
They didn’t.
They helped the corporations.
They helped themselves to good headlines.
They helped the narrative shift toward Trump so they could dodge accountability.
But the workers?
They got exactly what they always get from this crew:
nothing but promises recycled into excuses.
The collapse wasn’t caused by a foreign president.
It was caused by a Canadian government that negotiated badly, planned poorly, and reacted too late — again.
Elgin–St. Thomas–London South didn’t get protection.
It got abandoned.
Watch on YouTube:
Conservative MP breaks down how the Liberals helped auto workers
